"Airplane" starts with "A." There was a huge section on airplanes in the World Book Encyclopedias my parents had. Facing page spreads featuring gaggles of aircraft from the Wright brothers to the Mig-25, I drew each plane over and over on lined notebook paper until I got my first library card. Then the game was on. Books covering planes from nose to tail. Paint schemes. Heaven. The Revell and Monogram model kits followed closely, and I eventually built cars, too. It didn't matter. Building was fun. Painting was great, too, but the Testors paints and that white brush mystified me. How did the guys in the magazines do it? It didn't help that Star Wars came out. Heard this story before?

I went to college and studied Architectural Design at Clemson University. Great design education. Post graduation I worked in Charleston, SC, for a few years at Stubbs Muldrow Herin Architects. Got a call from a buddy (now commercial director Andrew Hardaway) in Los Angeles who needed some help in "3D". I packed the car and did Hollywood. I learned how to model in FormZ, paint in Photoshop, render in ElectricImage, comp in AfterEffects. Rendering to and from Jazz drives. Ah, the life. I was hired a few years later to be in the now-defunct Rebel Mac Unit at Industrial Light and Magic in San Rafael, CA. I'd fallen into a dream job.

I worked in the "Mac Unit" for some time as a generalist. I guess that's what we were. From the Return of the Jedi re-release in 1997 thru the Star Wars Prequels and more, I developed both a decent film eye and holistic view of the digital production pipeline through a "single artist approach." I had access and proximity to extremely talented artisans from which to learn. Somehow, Rebel Mac died. So I moved into the big pipeline at ILM as a modeler, viewpainter, and matte painter. Specialized pipeline working methods became clearer to me…stuff I didn't have to know in the Mac Unit, but saw the benefits of in the greater flow of working. I left ILM in 2006 after Transformers and took on a LookDev Supervisor role at the Orphanage in the San Francisco where I made a point of honing my skills in off-the-shelf software after using the highly specialized, super-pipeline tools at ILM. I wanted to make the correlation between the two "styles of getting something done" and apply it to my long-time interest in design.

I was offered a job as a concept artist/modeler at ImageMoversDigital in 2008. I took this opportunity to work directly with Doug Chiang, whose work I'd admired and appreciated over the years. It was in his Art Department in Northern California that I pulled the myriad of hobbies, education, work experience, and passion for design/build together and have forged along a new vein. Mars Needs Moms (2010), Yellow Submarine, and Robota have given me the opportunity to rigorously explore my talents and passions under the fire of high-quality design demands, allowing yet another sphere of the design/build process to be explored.

I believe in the technique I'm involved, or evolved, in, where thoughts and ideas about how things can exist, function, and look travel from idea to the 3D production canvas very quickly, with great fluidity.

about: RESUME

SKILLS / QUALIFICATIONS

General

Strong design background and instincts in a variety of disciplines with emphasis on hard surface models, environments, and composition/framing for shots.

Good communication skills among artists and supervisors/client.

Organizational skills and interests for use in pipeline execution of shots and asset management purposes.

Strong ability to extrapolate from sketches then refine and detail to further concepts.

Able to develop or refine ideas in both 2D and 3D.

Enjoy working in small, concentrated group or large, pipeline oriented production.

2D Skills

Drawing/sketching with pencils, markers, and guache along with digital painting using Photoshop for ideazation.

Good compositing skills in Adobe After Effects.

3D Skills

Senior-Level skills in polygonal model delivery from concept art to lookdev'd asset using the suite of tools listed:

Modeling: Maya, Form.Z. Alias Studio, some 3DStudioMax.

Texturing: UVLayout and Maya for UV prep and layout. BodyPaint and Photoshop for paint.

Lighting: Maya. Some 3DStudioMax. Mental Ray for Rendering.

Compositing: Adobe AfterEffects & some Nuke

INTERESTS

Transportation, architectural, urban, and industrial design. Emphasis on the research and development in racing cars, motorcycles, and boats.

Non-fiction reading. Emphasis on sociological and political events of the past and present.